


Mad Prince Rulf: Victim

by sglottalk



Series: Crown Prince Rulf [12]
Category: Vorkosigan Saga - Lois McMaster Bujold
Genre: Childhood Sexual Abuse, Gen, Incest, Post-Canon, Rape Aftermath
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2016-03-05
Updated: 2016-03-06
Packaged: 2018-05-24 19:11:22
Rating: Mature
Warnings: Creator Chose Not To Use Archive Warnings
Chapters: 2
Words: 2,389
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/6163597
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/sglottalk/pseuds/sglottalk
Summary: <blockquote class="userstuff">
              <p>Gregor learns a secret about his daughter-in-law's past.</p>
            </blockquote>





	1. Chapter 1

**Author's Note:**

> WARNING: This entry goes to a darker place than previous entries in the Crown Prince Rulf series. Readers who want a more specific warning may look at the tags.

Emperor Gregor sensed that something did not add up about his new daughter-in-law, Crown Princess Serena Vordarian Vorbarra.

As the niece of the Count of one of Barrayar's most important districts, she had always been a person of interest to ImpSec. An even more thorough investigation into her background was made when she became betrothed to Crown Prince Rulf. Yet Gregor would not have expected someone like Serena to have come from the background described in the reports.

Serena, very unusually among the high Vor, was an only child who was female. Her parents clearly doted upon her. And she has mostly grown up in Vordarian District, surrounded by people who would be impressed by her status as the Count's niece, rather than in Vorbarra Sultana, where she would have spent more time around people of equivalent or higher social rank. Gregor would have expected such a young woman to be, if not spoiled, then at least very assertive and mildly self-centered. Yet instead, she was very good at being an unremarkable wallflower - that is, unremarkable until one discovered just how good she was at observing all which happened around her.

Ever since Rulf had said - under fast-penta no less - that he considered himself to be an aromantic greysexual, Laisa had been fretting about whether something had happened to him to make him that way. She had wondered if all of the drugs he had taken over the years had messed if up, she wondered they had made some parenting mistake, she even wondered if Captain Aleikhin had tortured Rulf in addition to attempting to kill him. 

Gregor still had trouble wrapping his head around what Rulf had confided, but ever since the first time Serena had confided that she never expected to fall in love, Gregor had wondered if something had happened to _her_. The more he thought about it, the more certain he was that the background reports on her were missing something big.

Gregor hesitated briefly before authorizing a new investigation which would delve into Serena's past in greater depth than ImpSec ever had before. He never liked doing this to a young woman who, as far as he knew, had never done anything wrong. But she was now the Crown Princess, and it was his duty as Emperor to clear up any mystery about her which might pose a threat to the Imperium. Unlike the previous investigations into her background, this time ImpSec agents were authorized to use involuntary fast-penta interrogations on, for example, servants of the Vordarian family.

The findings of the new investigation make Gregor feel sick.

Count Vordarian had started raping his own niece when she was just ten years old. Since he lived in Vorbarra Sultana, and she lived in the district, there were limits to his opportunities to abuse her, but he had continued to take them when he could. Serena's parents had noticed a change in her, but it seemed they had never found out why. Lord Kolya held his brother Count Vordarian in high esteem; perhaps it was inconceivable to him that Count Vordarian would prey upon Serena. After Serena started studying at Vorbarra Sultana University, she had taken great pains to see to it that she would live with her grandparents Professor and Professora Vorthys rather than at Vordarian House.

And it had not just been Serena. There were at least three other victims, including the daughter of a Vordarian armsman.

Gregor remembered what Serena had said during their first interview: _I've had my own experiences. My parents have not always been able to protect me. I will never be entirely safe. I don't know that being a Vorbarra will be worse than being a Vordarian._

One time, when the Vorthys were out of town and Serena could not find a good pretext to ignore one of Count Vordarian's invitation, she had brought a man she had only known for a few weeks as a guest. That man had been Rulf.

ImpSec, of course, had monitored Rulf's visit to Vordarian House, and Gregor knew that Rulf had called Count Vordarian a pedophile to his face. At the time, Gregor had assumed that Rulf was merely displaying his usual 'charm'. In this case, Rulf's 'charm' had gotten him sent out of Vordarian House. Gregor had wondered if that incident was why Count Vordarian had not attending Rulf and Serena's wedding.

Gregor thought he now knew what Serena was afraid Rulf was going to say while Rulf had been under the influence of fast-penta.

***

"When you went to Vordarian House," Gregor said, "you knew what the Count had done to Serena."

"Actually, I didn't," Rulf replied. "I only called him a pedophile because he was giving off this really creepy vibe. Then I saw how the servants reacted to that word. And I noticed Serena maneuver herself into leaving with me rather than staying at Vordarian House."

"You knew for sure before you married her." It was not a question.

"I did."

"Why didn't you tell Us?" Gregor hissed.

"She asked me to tell no one, not even you."

"But you are letting him go free, and unpunished. What of other victims?"

"As Crown Princess, she is doing what she can to help the ... others," Rulf said.

"She knows?"

"Only recently. Before she was betrothed, it was too dangerous for her to make inquiries." 

"There is a limit to her power. And to let such a man stay on the Council of Counts, to represent Vordarian District, to continue to have so much power over so many vulnerable people..."

"Father, in this matter, I do what she tells me to do," Rulf replied. "She is the one who lived through this, not me. She tells me to do nothing, then I do nothing."

Gregor was not going to do nothing.


	2. Chapter 2

"I would like to tell you again, we could ask Laisa or Rulf to come, if that would make you feel more comfortable," Gregor said. In fact, he had been planning to ask for a private meeting between himself, Laisa, Rulf, and Serena before Serena had taken the initiative to ask for a private meeting.

"It would not make me more comfortable," Serena said quietly. "Would it make you more comfortable, sire?" she asked gently, without a trace of snark of sarcasm.

 _Yes_ , thought Gregor. He would very much appreciate Laisa's backup. And now that he knew her history, he felt very uncomfortable putting himself, a very powerful man, alone with her. "My comfort is not the issue here," Gregor replied.

"Oh," she said.

Silence.

"Rulf told me that you know," she said.

"We can arrange therapy for you," Gregor said.

"Thank you. I might accept that offer, sire," Serena replied.

"It seems that your uncle has already started paying for therapy for some of the ... others," Gergor said.

"I have communicated some things as Crown Princess to my uncle," Serena said.

"Is that the reason why you married Rulf?" Gregor asked.

Serena paused. "It is a reason. Even Count Vordarian cannot touch a Crown Princess."

"But why wait so long for protection? Why not tell your parents?"

"When it started..." Serena said. "There were many things I did not understand then. By the time I became older and understood better, it was easier to remain silent."

"What of your grandparents? Surely they would have assisted you?" Gregor did not believe that Louis Vorsmythe, Serena's paternal grandfather, would condone the rape of children, but until recently, he would not have believed this of Count Vordarian either. However, Gregor was sure of the character of the Vorthys. "Your mother's father is an Imperial Auditor, and has sworn no oaths to your uncle. Why not ask him for help?"

"I did, and he has," Serena replied. "I made it clear to him that I do not like my uncle, and wish to have nothing to do with him. And that I wish him not to mention my aversion to my uncle to my parents, in the interest of keeping the family peace. Without his protection, I would not have dared move to Vorbarra Sultana."

"Yet you did not tell him what your uncle did?" Gregor was almost certain that, had Professor Vorthys known, he would have reported it.

"I did not," Serena replied.

"You are the victim, and you are blameless. I will not second-guess you choices," Gregor said.

Silence.

How did Serena remain so collected? Ah yes, what her uncle did to her was not shocking news to her, like it was for Gregor. She has been living with this for over a decade. Her capacity for non-reaction must, in part, be a form of self-protection. Gregor could not help but think of another young person, not much older than Serena, who had been assaulted at the age of eleven, had not told his parents about it, and when his mother had first discussed it with him, had failed to respond with shock, tears, or rage. _Is this something which binds Rulf and Serena together?_

"Do you plan to do anything, sire?" Serena asked.

"Of course," Gregor said. "Count Vordarian will not be count for much longer."

"Even an emperor cannot remove a count so easily, sire," Serena responded.

"Your uncle will be prosecuted before the Council of Counts. After all of the evidence is presented, I expect a unanimous decision."

Serena was quiet.

"You will have to testify in person," Gregor said grimly. "The Council of Counts will not accept testimony from an anonymous witness, not in a case like this."

Serena became very, very still.

Gregor kicked himself mentally. He had of course considered the political implications of revealing such a thing about the Crown Princess, and concluded that he was not going to let that interfere with his decision. Since Rulf was already such a great embarrassment as a crown prince, and Gregor had already planned to disinherit him when the time was right, which meant that Serena was never going to be an empress anyway, he figured that the long-run cost to the prestige of the Vorbarra line would be minimal. Yet he had not thought about how much it would _personally_ cost Serena to have to describe her experiences before the full Council of Counts.

Nonetheless, Gregor was going to eliminate Count Vordarian, and he was going to do it legally, and this was the legal way.

"The testimony of other victims may suffice," Gregor said. "But it would be dishonorable to make them testify if I am not willing to put forth my own daughter-in-law. You - all of you - will be provided all of the counselling it is within my power to offer, and if you wish, because of your reputations, I can arrange a sheltered and secluded life for all of you. Or even arrange a comfortable life off-planet."

"I do not want to leave Barrayar. And I do not want to be put in a box."

"I never said you would be put in a box."

"I already feel like I am in a box," Serena said. "Sire, do you see me?"

"Of course I do."

"Me, Serena? Not a pitiable victim?"

"You are my daughter-in-law," Gregor responded.

Silence.

"This trial would be bad for our district. Whatever my uncle does in private, he has served the district well," Serena said. "My father and my uncle have restored the name tarnished by the Pretender, and Vordarian District is flourishing more than ever before. Yet I know, having grown up at my parents' side, that it is very difficult to govern. If the partnership between my father and my uncle were to..."

"Your uncle should have thought of that before he touched you." 

Silence.

"Sire, I remember the look you had on your face when I told you about the assassination attempt on your son," Serena said. "Until then, I had only seen you as an emperor. In that moment, I saw a father." Serena paused. "I would rather that my own parents never have that look upon their faces."

"Serena, We will not let your uncle get away with his crimes," the Emperor replied.

"I know," Serena replied. "But I beg you, sire, find a way which does not make this public. So that the other counts won't know. So that my parents won't know."

"We must teach the counts that this behavior will not be tolerated."

"A trial might just teach them to hide it better," Serena said in a tiny voice.

"Private justice is dangerous for the Imperium. We must obey Our own laws. We refuse to grant Count Vordarian special treatment."

"If you are intent on ruining our name, my reputation, the other victims' reputations, breaking my parents' hearts, and harming our district," Serena said submissively, "I cannot stop you."

***

Gregor and Miles were drinking wine together. "It's really weird," Miles started, "the way that Count Vordarian suddenly decided to abdicate and pass the countship onto his son."

"Much stranger things have happened among the counts," Gregor remarked.

"It's inconvenient for me," Miles grumbled. "Count Vordarian was a solid progressive."

"Isn't the new count also a progressive?" Gregor asked.

"Oh yes, Lord Vordarian - sorry, I am not used to thinking of him as a count yet - has similar political leanings as his sire. But he's, er, a lot less experienced. Can't pull the same weight as his father."

"If it is a matter of experience, that is a problem which can be solved over time."

"There is a lot of gossip about why the now-former Count Vordarian went to Beta Colony without his wife," Miles said. "Maybe he wants to go to the Orb alone."

The now-former Count Vordarian was actually heading for involuntary therapy, not the Orb, but Gregor said nothing.

"I can't help but think this has _something_ to do with his niece marrying your damn son," Miles said.

Miles was clearly angling for a comment from Gregor. Gregor did not let himself be hooked.

"By the way, I still cannot believe you let that marriage go through."

"They both wanted it," Gregor said. 

"You better damn well be doing a good job of caring for Serena," Miles muttered. "And when she finally comes to her senses, you will make it very, very easy for her to obtain a divorce, will you not?"

"Of course," said Gregor.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Ugh, I did not enjoy writing this. For a while, I planned to just leave out this section of the story, and let the history between Serena and her uncle be one of those things I know but the readers do not know. Once I decided that, yes, this really did need to be written, I thought I would go into a full trial before the Council of Counts, but that would have been even harder to write ... and I felt it would be out of character for Gregor to do that once he fully understood just how much harm a trial would do.


End file.
